Our Boat is Broke. Very.

Well, we went out for an evening race with the Mad Dogs series, and it started out quite calm. Tash was aboard, so we had no worries when the wind started picking up. Warm and musky, is how I’d describe a very pleasant evening’s sail. Until disaster struck.

We were heading in on a starboard beat towards the Sea Club on Leg 3, when we heard a thump, and the genoa slipped a little. We had a quick check, and then winced the genny back in. We put in a tack and started to head back out on a Port Tack. Marc clearly wasn’t so very comfortable, though, so he went forward to do a check. And this is what he found:

Not a pretty sight!

He didn’t actually tell us what he found, having this superiority complex as Skipper, and a belief you shouldn’t tell the crew when something goes wrong, in case you worry them. That’s fine for wossies, but not for the likes of Tash and I. SO when he ordered us to furl in the genny, we said “No, this is fun, and we’re winning”. He seemed quite determined tho, so I asked what the problem was. Naturally, when he explained we furled in the genny, and motorsailed under main back to the Marine.

Post-mortem showed a crack in the chainplate. A proper rigging inspection would probably have picked up on a bit of rust discolouration around the area. But we didn’t inspect, and now we have a hole to fix!!